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EPA 823-F-06-010
June 2006
EPA's BEACH Report:
2005 Swimming Season
Introduction
To further its commitment to reducing the risk of exposure to disease-causing bacteria at
recreational beaches, EPA is posting its latest data about beach closings and advisories for the
2005 swimming season. Congress passed the BEACH Act of 2000 (BEACH Act), requiring that
coastal and Great Lakes states and territories report to EPA on beach monitoring and notification
data for their coastal recreation waters. To help protect the public, the BEACH Act also requires
EPA to maintain an electronic monitoring and notification database of that data.
The BEACH Act defines coastal recreation waters as the Great Lakes and coastal waters
(including coastal estuaries) that states, territories, and authorized tribes officially recognize or
designate for swimming, bathing, surfing, or similar activities in the water.
Figure 1. Coastal states with 2005 monitored beach data.
Total = 4.025 Beaches
Coastal states with monitored beach data
Non-coastal states
ğ
75 '
MR
(N.Mariana Islands)
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Advisories and Closings
When monitoring of water at swimming
beaches shows that levels of certain bacteria
exceed standards, states or local agencies
notify the public of potential health risks.
This public notification may be either a beach
advisory, warning people of possible risks of
swimming, or closing a beach to the public.
For the 2005 swimming season, all of the
thirty coastal states and five territories
reported public notification actions to EPA.
The data show that only four percent of beach
days were lost due to advisory or closures
triggered by monitoring. Even then, most
actions were of relatively short duration (see
Figure 2). Of the 4,025 beaches that were
monitored in 2005, 1,109 or 28 percent had
at least one advisory or closing during the
2005 season (Figure 3). A total of 5,540 beach
notification actions were reported.
EPA calculates beach days to get a better
sense of the extent of beach advisory
and closure information. We do this by
multiplying the number of beaches by the
number of days in the swimming season. For
the 2005 swimming season, EPA determined
there were a total of 743,036 beach days for
all of the 4,025 monitored beaches. Of those,
actions were reported on 27,177 days (Figure
4), meaning that beaches were closed only
about 4% of the time.
The data consist primarily of advisories issued
as a result of local monitoring and localized
precautionary advisories. Certain preemptive
advisories that apply to large areas are not
included in these counts.
Figure 2: Beach notification actions by duration.
2,733
Total
= 5,540 Actions
1 - 2 Days
3 - 7 Days 8 - 30 Days
Duration of Actions
Figure 3: Beach notification actions in 2005.
Monitored
beaches with
actions
(28%)
Monitored
beaches
without actions
(72%)
Total
= 4,025
Beaches
Figure 4: Beach days by notification actions.
Beach days
with an action
(4%)
Beach days
with no action
(96%
Total
= 743,036 Days
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State Reporting Data
Data trends are difficult to establish due to the new reporting requirements that began in 2003.
The data from 2003 to 2005 cannot easily be compared to data gathered from 1997 to 2002.
From 1997-2002 beach monitoring data was collected and submitted to EPA on a voluntary
basis and included coastal, Great Lakes, and some inland waters. Beginning with the 2003
season, states are required to submit data to EPA under the BEACH Act for beaches which are
in coastal and Great Lakes waters (Table 1). EPA is working to complete the data sets.
Table 1. Data collected on beaches, advisories, and closings.
Voluntary Survey
Number of monitored
beaches
Number of beaches affected
by advisories or closings
Percentage of beaches
affected by advisories or
closings
1997 1998 1999 2000 2001
1,021 1,403 1,891 2,354 2,445
230 353 459 633 672
23 25 24 27 27
2002
2,823
709
25
Required
Reporting
2003 2004
1,857* 3,574**
395* 942**
21* 26**
2005
4,025
1,109
28
*lncomplete data from 11 states.
**lncomplete data from 4 territories.
Uniform Water Quality Standards
The BEACH Act of 2000 required coastal states and states bordering the Great Lakes to adopt
EPA's most current recommended bacteria criteria to better protect beach bathers from harmful
pathogens. On November 8, 2004, EPA finalized more protective bacteria standards for E. coll
and enterococci for coastal and Great Lakes recreational waters for those states that had not yet
complied with the BEACH Act of 2000. Twenty-one states and territories were affected by this
rule; the other 14 had standards in place that were as protective of human health as EPA's most
current bacteria criteria.
Funding to State Programs
For the past six years, EPA has provided nearly $52 million in grants to 35 coastal and Great
Lakes states and territories. The funds are designed to help improve water monitoring and
public information programs to alert beachgoers about the health of their beaches.
The grants are designed to support water monitoring, which helps to ensure that the public
receives information on how to protect their health when visiting beaches. Beach water
monitoring results are used to issue warnings and closures if bacteria levels are at unsafe levels
and to help identify actions needed to reduce pollution.
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Planned Improvements
EPA is working proactively to improve the delivery of its beach advisory information to the public.
BEACON (BEach Advisory and Closing Online Notification system) is part of EPA's overall
"eBeaches" effort to provide the public with monitoring and notification information by electronic
means. EPA is working to improve eBeaches to enable faster, easier, and more secure transmittal of
information about beach water quality. This includes improved public access to information about
beach conditions and the health risks associated with swimming in polluted water. EPA's goal is to
make the 2006 swimming season data available sooner and to improve the beach mapping functions
by incorporating beach lengths. EPA consults regularly with its state counterparts and provides
technical assistance to make these improvements.
For More Information
For general information about beaches visit:
http://www.epa.gov/beaches/
For information about a specific beach:
http://www.epa.gov/waterscience/beacon/
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